Putting the "There" There:
Historical Archaeologies of West Oakland

Introduction

The I-880 Cypress Freeway Replacement, a project of the California
Department of Transportation (Caltrans) District 4, involved the reconstruction
of a 3.1-mile section of freeway in Oakland and Emeryville, California. As part
of its plan to comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation
Act, Caltrans contracted with the Anthropological Studies Center at Sonoma State
University (ASC) to examine the area of potential effects (APE).

The Cypress Archaeology Project database is unprecedented in
the West. Over 120 discrete artifact assemblages were recovered and associated
with specific households. A wide variety of groups is represented, from unskilled
working-class households to upper-middle-class families, immigrants from numerous
countries, and native-born whites and African Americans.

Part I presents the how, why, where, and who
of the Cypress Archaeology Project, along with a brief narrative history of
West Oakland. Part II contains chapters on the material conditions
of life in West Oakland, the politics of the Victorian parlor, and household
adaptive strategies. Part III focuses on the people of the
neighborhood, with essays on the archaeology of gender; the material culture
of the “aristocracy of labor”; the Overseas Chinese and laundry
work; the archaeology and landscape of lodging; and a chapter devoted to the
archaeology and near 150-year history of African Americans in West Oakland.
Part IV contrasts the largely negative presentation of West
Oakland by historical commentators with a view based on historical archaeology
and makes some recommendations for future work on archaeology projects. Appendixes
include a project timeline; a list of other scholarly and interpretive products
that have been created from Cypress Project data; a record of the historical
associations of each archaeological feature; summaries and artifact layout photographs
of 69 of the features studied; a much-edited version of the Field Director’s
diary; and statistical studies of faunal and glass remains.